James H McLaren @JamesHMcLaren@social.cleverlibre.org

It's been 2 weeks since Alberta updated the COVID, Flu and RSV numbers on its "Respiratory virus dashboard": https://www.alberta.ca/stats/dashboard/respiratory-virus-dashboard.htm

It's currently showing data for the week of Dec. 10 to Dec. 16, 2023.

It's normally updated on Thursday afternoons.

I just emailed the press secretary for health ministry and to ask when the next update will be and got an autoreply:

"Thank-you for your email. I am no longer with the Government of Alberta."

🙃

#ableg #alberta #canada #cdnpoli #covid #flu #rsv

Another fun fact that will make people assume you don’t know what you’re talking about…

Yesterday (7:38 PM Ottawa time), the Earth was as close to the Sun as it gets. Yes, right in the middle of (Northern Hemisphere) winter! We are about *5 million km* closer than we will be on July 5, the date of aphelion (farthest point from the Sun).

https://mastodon.social/@telescoper/111691847930681152
#Astronomy #FunFacts

@tychotithonus @robertatcara Same exact energy.

@robertatcara As someone who personally discovered and fixed bugs that would have had significant real world impact, it is disturbing to hear someone propagate this myth. And it is a myth.

https://time.com/5752129/y2k-bug-history/

The testing methodology insured that these impacts were not hypothetical. At my company, the testing was performed by "actually rolling the clock forward* on test. systems to see what would happen. For example, I discovered that every ATM in the state of Alaska operated by my company would have locked up until a chip was swapped. Someone had to fly all over the state to proactively swap the chip beforehand, to avoid significant customer impact.

And that was just one story. I personally oversaw investigation and fixes for other hardware and software at that company that would have failed.

And that was just my company. I spoke with others in IT at that time with similar stories. And that was just the people I knew.

So no, it wasn't "a big fuss about nothing" - and saying so is both dangerously revisionist, and disrespectful of the work it took to prevent real impacts.

Kids today won't know the joy of spending the next 3 months writing the wrong date on their checks.

Conjunctivitis.com – now that’s a site for sore eyes.

She’s almost there… just a little more thinking…

Only 42% of eligible voters cast their ballot last provincial election. The corrupt Fordnation won with a mere 22% of the electorate. Now Ontario is being destroyed and sold to developers because the majority was too stupid and/or lazy to vote.

Nobody wants to show me a cool rock they found anymore.

Adulthood is so dumb.

Listen, I for one take great comfort in anything that suggests the universe is a rational and balanced place 😄

(Edmonton Journal, Dec 28, 1937)

In retrospect, it was a mistake to teach an entire generation to "do your own research" without additionally teaching them how to, you know, do research

"It’s a good thing that someone stood up at the town hall and asked her that question, because the answer she gave tells us what this election is really about. Listen to Nikki Haley and to Donald Trump and to every other Republican. Listen to what they say and what they leave out. We don’t count. They do. It’s about their freedom, and their individual rights, and their economic freedom. They mean it."

#NikkiHaley #CivilWar #slavery #SouthCarolina #Republicans #freedom
/2

An aroma I've known all too well over the years.

Oh hey, it's my last CNN article for 2023! Did you know that fluctuations in Earth's magnetic field were preserved in baked mud bricks from the days of Nebuchadnezzar II?

Archaeomagnetic analysis linked stamped, dated bricks to a power surge in the magnetosphere over Mesopotamia, about 3000 years ago.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/27/world/ancient-bricks-magnetic-field-anomaly-scn/index.html

#science #SciComm #archaeology #mesopotamia

That’s a good day, right there.

#funny #humor #politics #queer